In Pace Christi

I got the news of the death of Fr. Luigi Denicolò from the office of Cardinal Gabriel Zubeir Wako. In the e-mail I found a message of Fr. Giancarlo Ramanzini which read: “Dear Friends, today, after supper, Fr. Luigi went to the TV hall to watch the news. Suddenly he bent his head backwards, with his mouth open as if he had fallen asleep. Bro. Giuseppe Manara came downstairs to give us the sad news of his death. He passed away without disturbing anyone.”

Fr. Luigi was born in Agai di Pieve Livinallongo (Belluno), in the very north of Italy, in a simple and poor family, on the 16 December 1925 and died on 23 May 2008, at the age of 82.

He had entered the novitiate of the Comboni Missionaries in 1943, after studying some years at a boarding school run by the Franciscans. He made his profession in Venegono on 15 May 1945, and his perpetual vows, again in Venegono, in 1950. He was ordained priest in the cathedral of Milan on 19 May 1951. After spending four years in England, teaching science to the novices under the direction of Fr. Agostino Baroni, the future Bishop of Khartoum, on 1 August 1954 Fr. Luigi was assigned to the Comboni College in Khartoum, most probably under the request of Fr. Baroni himself.

Fr. Luigi arrived at the College in 1955 and remained there till the end of September 2007, that is for 52 years.

He was a good and dedicated teacher and a friend to the students. Besides the classroom, he was to be found everywhere for repair and maintenance work. Once he told me confidentially that perhaps he would have better fulfilled his missionary vocation if he had become a Brother. But he knew how to be a good priest and did not miss any opportunity to exercise his priestly ministry.

When his death became known, many letters were received from various quarters. One of his many students from Australia, for instance, remembers him with these words: “I owe a lot of my successful career to his laying down the grounds for the love of science. He was also a friend who was constantly encouraging us to keep going in healthy orientations of life. I considered him like a family friend”.

On 21 February of this year I met Fr. Luigi for the last time in Verona. He appeared even thinner and weaker than usual. He told me that he did not feel strong enough to return to Khartoum. For the time being he preferred to remain in Italy. He was serene and made clear two points: firstly, that he was ready to go anywhere the superiors wanted to send him, and, secondly, if he eventually regained some strength, he would have asked to return to Khartoum. He knew that the second possibility would have been very unlikely. The only favour he asked of me was that I would send him from Khartoum the crucifix he received on his first profession in Venegono in 1945 and which he had left in his room at the Comboni College.

At the funeral Mass in the Cathedral of Khartoum, on Monday 26 May, Fr. Giovanni Ferracin spoke of Fr. Luigi by using the words of Comboni who, in his recommendations to his missionaries, said: “The missionary is not to look for his personal success: at times he must be like a stone hidden under the earth, which will perhaps never come out to glory, but which will become part of the foundation of a vast, new building that only those who will come after him will see it rising from the ground. It seems Fr. Luigi took those words at heart.”

Mons. Daniel Adwok likes to link the figure of Fr. Luigi to that of Christ who “at last supper, did not remove the apron he wore when he washed the feet of the disciples, because it symbolised the great act of service Jesus was going to offer on the next day by his sacrifice on the Cross. All the many times I visited the Comboni College I always found Fr. Luigi wearing an apron, which it became for me a symbol of his readiness to be of service to the community.”

Thank you, Fr. Luigi. Continue to look after the College, especially after your confreres, the students at the school and the many former students who are now in places of responsibility. Your work is not finished. We feel sure you are doing it with the same commitment which was yours when you were with us.
(Fr. Salvatore Pacifico)
Da Mccj Bulletin n. 239 suppl. In Memoriam, ottobre 2008, pp. 22-27.